FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	ENR

THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1998                                                                                                                                (202) 514-2008

                                                                                                                                                                                 TDD (202) 514-1888







PENNSYLVANIA COMPANY MAJORITY OWNER AND MANAGERS


INDICTED IN WASTE DUMPING CONSPIRACY





	WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A federal grand jury in Philadelphia
today charged Multi-Flow Dispensers L.P., and its majority owner,
general manager and warehouse manager with conspiring to dump
manufacturing wastes into sewer systems in New Jersey and
Philadelphia from 1990 to 1994, the Justice Department announced.
	The indictment, filed today in U.S. District Court in
Philadelphia, charges Multi-Flow majority owner Bernard A.
Gottlieb, general manager Nicholas Scairato, and warehouse
manager David Haigh, with criminal violations of the Clean Water
Act for their alleged roles in the waste dumping conspiracy. 
Multi-Flow makes highly concentrated drink mix syrups, based in
Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. 

	"These allegations of deliberate dumping are serious
offenses that will be prosecuted," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant
Attorney General in charge of the Environment and Natural
Resources Division.  "The alleged violations would not have been
discovered and prosecuted but for outstanding efforts of the
Philadelphia Water Department, FBI and EPA Criminal Investigation
Division in Philadelphia."

	According to the indictment, Multi-Flow began illegally
trucking its waste in 55 gallon drums from its manufacturing plan
in Huntingdon Valley, to its former headquarters in Carteret, New
Jersey, where it was dumped into a drainage pit located inside
the company's building.  Multi-Flow also leased a building at an
industrial park outside of Philadelphia, and dump waste there
from September 1992 to September 1994.  

	Multi-Flow's lease at the Frankford Arsenal Business Center
called for drains and a 20' x 20' drainage area to be installed
in its building and connected to the existing sewer system. 
Although the indictment alleges that Multi-Flow and its managers
intended to dump the waste into Philadelphia's Southwest Water
Pollution Control Plant, the drains were actually connected to a
storm sewer that flowed directly to the Frankford Inlet, a
tributary of the Delaware River.  According to the indictment,
Multi-Flow and the managers charged in the illegal scheme, did
not notify the sewer authorities in New Jersey or Philadelphia
and did not have a permit.

	In addition, the indictment alleges that Multi-Flow and its
managers circumvented a monitoring and sampling device in the
sewer system by dumping at the company's Huntingdon Valley
facility only after lifting a manhole and checking in the sewer
downstream from the plant to see if the monitoring device was
present.  The monitor had been ordered as a result of a 1987
Compliance Agreement with a local sewer authority.  Employees
were provided with rain coats and directed to dump the pollutants
in Multi-Flow's parking lot during rains storms, where the waste
flowed to a nearby tributary of the Pennypack River, a tributary
of the Delaware River.

	The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to
knowingly violate the prohibition on dumping trucked waste at an
unpermitted sewer disposal site, and with dumping acidic waste
with a pH value of less than 5.0 into the sewer system.   

	The investigation of Multi-Flow and the defendants was
conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the
Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigative Division. 
The prosecution is being handled by the Justice Department's
Environmental Crimes Section.  The investigation is continuing.

	An indictment represents charges brought by a federal grand
jury and is not itself evidence.  The government has the burden
of proving the charges at trial beyond a reasonable doubt.

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